Sebastian Mola

Gender violence

Introduction:

The aim of this essay is to introduce the gender violence topic, with an approach from
Argentina’s actual situation, due to the increasing social fights against this problem the
historical difference between men and women’s rights, and to give notice of the huge
problematic that this theme causes to the society. To make clear the situation, when I
talk about gender violence, I am referring to violence from men towards women. Although
there is no denial of the existence of violence from women to men, the social-historical
context, as well as the far greatest number of violent acts dealt by men, make this term
a bigger problem for the feminine community.

Even though gender violence is not at all a new phenomenon, because of its undeniably
patriarchal historical precedent, the visual recognition, and thus, the transformation of
being a private matter, to be a public one, is recent. Over the years, many forms of
violence were hidden under the customs, habits, and acceptance of the society. Families,
friends and public institutions were accomplices of this violence, but they didn’t do it with
the intention of creating a breach between men and women, it was just the normal acting
of the society.

Moreover, the multiple manifestations that violence towards women can adopt, represent
an element of great weight, being that in most of the cases, females don’t recognize the
situation of violence they are in. a lot of times, the victims have a minimum perception
about their rights involving physical integrity, sexual liberty, free will, social participation,
an even the defense of the right to live.

The problem starts with the ignorance most people have about this matter. When asked
on public TV for the concept of gender violence, the answers didn’t vary, they were
always the same “is the violence inflicted by men to women”. While this is not incorrect,
is incomplete, the correct definition is the violence that affects women, for the simple fact
of being women. Although this may not be a big difference when you read it, technically
it does. It is any act of violence or aggression, based on a situation of inequality in the
framework of a system of dominating relationships of men over women which may result
in physical, sexual or phycological damage.

This last part of the definition is also interesting, given that the common knowledge is
that gender violence covers physical, and sexual, and if you are more informed, the
psychological. As a matter of fact, there are at least seven types of gender violence in
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which the society incurs but may not see it as wrong doing, because it has been accepted
traditionally.

The classification starts with physical violence, stating that it is any act in which physical
damage is inflicted to the victim through a direct aggression, which can be temporal or
permanent. This is the most common way of violence, which includes punches, kicks,
pushes, bites or blows dealt with objects.

The second type is psychological violence, which takes place even if there is no physical
violence, when the aggressor attacks the woman with insults, humiliations or threats. In
this way, the woman is victim of a manipulation which can often lead to her own thinking
of being undervalued, helpless, or even guilty of their relationships problems. Since in
many cases a direct aggression is not perceived in the message, many victims are not
aware of being mistreated and do not take action against the aggressor.

The next is sexual violence, which despite being a type of physical violence, it refers
concretely to those situations in which a person is forced or coerced to incur in activities
of sexual nature, including not only sexual intercourse, but also forced prostitution as
well as forced conception or abortion.

Another type is the economic violence. This type is based on the reduction and
deprivation of economic resources to the female in the relationship, as a method of
manipulation or with the intention of damaging her integrity.

Patrimonial violence is the usurpation or destruction of the victim’s belongings or

properties, with the intention of dominating her or causing a psychological damage. In
many ways these possessions are the results of years of work, and so, destroying them
is a way of establishing that all those efforts are worth nothing.

Then there is social violence, which consist of limitation, control and induction to social
isolation of a person. The victim is separated from her family and friends, depriving her
from social support and removing her from her usual environment.

Lastly there is vicarious violence. A numerous quantity of couples where there is violence
have Childs and in many occasions the perpetrator decides to threat, hurt or even murder
them with the sole purpose of damaging the woman.

As we can see, violence spreads in many ways, often leading to hospitalizations, and in
the worst cases, death. In Argentina, only in 2016 there were 290 recorded femicides,
this being murders committed to women because of being women, leaving out all female
murders which could not be proved to be femicides but may have as well.
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Such has been the impact, that the feminism movement in Argentina organized this last
two years numerous marches, demanding for equal rights, equal treatment and respect.
One serious problem presented in the country is the police and investigation work. Its
not an exclusive Argentinian problem that when a woman presents a complaint or wants
to file a lawsuit, the police station officers just don’t believe her or will not take her
seriously.

Every year, more and more complaints are presented, and thrown away because the
victim does not have enough proof, and that is the problem with the justice. When there
is gender violence, not only the victim will not always have marks on her body, but also
and most important, the victim is in the majority of the cases, afraid of the consequences
of going behind their aggressors back. During most time of the damaging relationship,
the woman is already being manipulated without knowing it, feels drawn to the male, and
so, tries to continue without revealing to anyone that she is being mistreated or
minimizing this violence to the point where she thinks it is normal.

Many people can’t understand how is it that a woman in this situation does not just walk
away but they don’t really get the magnitude of the problem. Psychologists have studied
this problematic over the years and came up with the three-phase cycle of the called
“toxic relationships”, and this is why it is so hard for a victim of gender violence to get out
of a violent relationship. The first phase is the accumulation of tension, in which the
aggressor gets more and more susceptible over time, answering more aggressively and
finding conflicts in everyday situations. The second phase is the tension burst, where the
violence gets more brutal, introducing physical and sexual violence to the relationship.
Finally, the last phase activates, called the “honeymoon” phase, where the aggressor
shows his false deep regret towards the victim, usually along with presents or good
gestures that lead the woman to forgive him and go back to being together.

This last phase is the most alarming one in my opinion, because if the police officers do
a better job and carry out investigations like they should, clearly the femicides rate would
go down. However, the extreme level of manipulation a man can establish in a
relationship, to the point of installing in the victim’s mind some sort of guilt for leaving
him, or a feeling strong enough to make her forgive him even after he has perpetrated
such acts of violence, is so distressing that one could not think of a solution, due to the
society itself.

To change this situation would mean to change the education system, to teach everyone
how to see a woman not as an object, as an inferior human, or as anything else than an
equal. But the problem is how to teach this to young kids without disturbing their minds,
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or accelerating their maturing process, how to show them what not to do when it is so
normalized, that a large part of the society does not think it is even a problem.

Conclusion:

From my point of view this is a historical problem, that was accepted by the society
traditionally, but now has been demonstrated to be a threat to the community and we
should try to prevent it at all cost. The government should implement an education plan
where children are formed to deal with conflicts in every peaceful way possible, where
empathy is fomented, and develop a balanced self esteem which would help the
disappearing of gender bias. Furthermore, the stereotypes transmitted by the patriarchal
culture should be eliminated and so, one should be taught to “be a person” instead of to
“be a man” or “be a woman”, so as to abolish myths such as aggressiveness, or strength
being a masculine feature, and obedience or quietness a feminine one.